CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Housing Minister ‘Udumalai’ K Radhakrishnan blamed the judiciary for failing to take action against the unauthorised building in T Nagar that housed Chennai Silks which was gutted in the fire.
The drive against unauthorised buildings has been pending due to frequent High Court and Supreme Court rulings on the issue, the minister said while addressing a press conference here on Thursday.
Quoting an order by the Madras High Court dated February 20, that came on a PIL against the State, CMDA and Greater Chennai Corporation, minister Radhakrishnan said: “In view of the order by Madras High Court, enforcement action against the building has been kept pending,” the minister said.
Flanked by Housing Secretary and Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority vice-chairman Dharmendra Pratap Yadav and CMDA Member Secretary C Vijayraj Kumar, the minister read out a statement citing several instances where the courts have stayed action.
As the high court directed the monitoring committee to file an action-taken report on demolition of such structures in T Nagar, the CMDA and city corporation had conducted a survey of T Nagar and identified 86 buildings that violated rules.
“As many as 25 commercial buildings on Usman Road and Ranganathan Street were sealed on October 31, 2011. Chennai Silks was one of them,” said the minister.
“But some of the buildings could not be sealed as interim stay orders were obtained on the same day citing pendency of regularisation and appeal proceedings,” he added.
Housing secretary Yadav said Section 113 C will allow regularisation of those buildings that are safe. Defending minor violations, he said CMDA will audit the safety of such buildings and initiate action. “We can’t initiate action against all of them. It will create a major problem,” he said.
The minister revealed that Chennai Silks building did not have any completion certificate. When pointed out how it got power and water connections, he said that CMDA has written letters to Chennai Metro Water and other departments on initiating action in this regard.